Looking For The Perfect Keyboard And Dialer

[06M6TorridGTO]

I cannot stand the stock keyboard on the Razr Maxx HD. I miss the keyboard from my Eris and DI2. The biggest problem is that this one does no have symbols behind the letters. I like to just tap and hold to put in a symbol. I also don't like that it automatically put in a space after selecting the suggested word, even after spaces. That is just one more character inserted into the message, so if its the last sentaence and I am right at the 160 character limit, the space will make it into a second message. I know I have the split 160 turned off in my Handcent SMS but I don't know how that works between carriers. I think there is a warning about that or something. It also did not have the arrow keys which I had on the DI2 but went crazy after not being able to use them on the Eris. So I hated that here too. I installed a trial version of SwiftKey 3 and so far, it is better. I like some of the features, and it has the arrows, but I actually find myself correcting words even more. The fact that it notices when you miss a space is good but I am seeing that it is constantly missing spaces when i type fast, like I am used to doing. I did not seem to have that issue with the stock keyboard, and it seems to predict words better but I needed those symbols, especially the exclamation and question. Thats just a pain. Overall, I am sticking with it for now but I was wondering if anyone else had any other suggestions?

I am also looking for a new dialer because I cannot get over the fact that I have to use extra touches to do what I did on my HTC phones. I assume this is an ICS issue and not Motorola but we'll see. I was thinking about going to the Verizon store and playing with the Galaxy S3 again to go over some of the things I hate with this phone. I still have a week to take it back so I want to explore options. But if I remember correctly, after 14 days I just have to keep the upgrade but I can still change phones with Best Buy up to 30 days. I need a new phone and I am keeping the upgrade so I guess that means I have 30 days to change my mind. Either way, I want a dialer similar to my DI2 and Eris. I was able to click phone and it would bring up the dialpad. Above it was the recent calls. I could start scrolling on that and the dialpad would drop down. Among this, from top to bottom was the recent calls, favorites, and then the rest of my phonebook. I could click one time on any name and it would start dialing. Also, if i started typing a name or phone number, all contacts or recent numbers with those letters/digits would show above. On the Maxx HD, I only get one name and a box that I have to click to show all of the other matches. This takes way too much time. And on this phone, when I click a name, it just puts the number in the input box. I want it to start actually dialing so that I don't have to hit the call button. I never used to hit the call button unless i was typing a new number or just redialing the last number. That's another thing. To redial on this one, I have to click the call button twice! All of this is so annoying. Why make us have to press things twice to make a call?! Remember, these are still PHONES not computers/tablets. So the phone feature should be the most operational and easiest to use. So does anyone have suggestions as to which dialer I should pick? I do know that switching to a non-stock dialer will eliminate the ability to call an emergency number like 911. I find that absolutely retarded and unacceptable. That seems like something Apple would do, not something from an open source platform like Android. Hopefully Google addresses this in their Jelly Bean update but I have my doubts.

So in summary, I need a great keyboard and great dialer, both similar to the ones I had on my HTC DI2. Any help is appreciated. Most trials I have seem for dialers and keyboards are 15-30 days so I want to know what I'm mostly dealing with before I lose that time. Thanks guys!!

 

[dan.dar]

For me, once I tried swype, all other keyboards went by the wayside. The stock HTC keyboard with swype functionality was not bad (on an HTC rhyme), but not as accurate as swype.

The dialer is stock Android dialer. You have the recent tab, the favorites tab where if you scroll down it will show frequently called numbers, finally on any of the tabs in the lower left is the search key which if you press it, you'll be shown all your contacts. What I hated in the HTC dialer was the fact that I had to scroll through a long list of recent numbers before I'd get to the favorites. Here I just press on favorites or scroll down to see my frequent calls list. For me this works faster than having to scroll through all these numbers before getting to favorites.

Finally, if you don't like stock keyboard or included swype keyboard and you hate the dialer so much, you may want to get the Droid DNA that was just announced. That should be similar to DI2 but your battery life will be nowhere near what you get on the MaxxHD.

 

[06M6TorridGTO]

I like the Razr Maxx HD, especially the battery, but also for the beauty of the phone and the memory size. As for my dialer, I'm not to worried about my scrolling down to get to my favorites because I have a widget that has all of that. On my DI2, I had a full screen widget on one of my home pages that showed 9 contacts and could be more if I chose to scroll but 9 was enough. I now have a widget that shows 4 in a single row but I can swipe it up or down and it shows up to i think 20 contacts. I have brought it up to 15 favorites. And with that, I can just click on the picture/name and it shows all contact info with the ability to click on the phone and it starts dialing. My DI2 widget (it was an HTC-created widget) let me pick what action to perform when clicking on the picture/name, so i would pick call and it was call immediately. But I'm not worried about it too much since I call the same people over and over so a list of recent calls on my dialer would be perfect. Rarely will I have someone on my favorites that's not one of my last 10 recent calls. Also, I noticed that the recent calls on this dialer show the same contact multiple times. Lets say I call them, then talk to someone else, then I call that first person again, I see that person listed twice on the list. The HTC phones showed only the most recent call for each contact (unless I looked at the call history). That was nice because I talk to my girlfriend many times, sometimes multiple calls, so it crowds up the recent calls list. 7 out of the recent 10 calls might be just her when it could have shown me 10 different numbers to pick from.

These are just things that I got used to with the HTC phones. I got the Eris back in March 2010 and it was the first smartphone I've had so that's all I'm used to. If anyone has any thoughts about a dialer app similar to them, please let me know and I will check it out. I have heard about GO Dialer and Dialer One so I may look into them if they are similar. I have also never before purchased an app as I've always been fine with the typical apps and never needed to. I would just get basic free ones. So this will be interesting to see how much it actually costs me to get it right. I know that I am going to get Tasker though. I just started with the trial yesterday and so far, it is much better than SmartActions, except that Tasker cant control GPS but that's really not too important. I also need to look for a gallery app as I'm not too impressed with the stock one either. I'm not sure if all of this was changed through in ICS or if it is because I'm now on a Moto phone instead of an HTC, or a combination of the two. At least I can actually customize my phone to my liking, unlike an iPhone!

 

[smalltowngirl13]

SlideIt is my favorite keyboard currently and Go Dialer is a nice substitute for the stock dialer...

 

[YankInDaSouth]

SwiftKey 3 is my go-to keyboard ... dialer I just use stock.

 

[2001400ex]

I like FlexT9 in the Amazon market. I have tried a few, but this one is the best. It has swipe and works well. It's the same company that made the t9 program for dumb phones.

For the dialer, I am with you, like HTC way better than moto and am curious if there is a better one out there.

 

[06M6TorridGTO]

I just don't like swipe. I noticed that swipe on this phone does have the symbols on it but I'm just not a big fan of swipe. I am actually considering taking the phone back now and trying something else since I am just starting to get fed up with things that I have to change to get it where I like it. I may even go find an old Droid Incredible 2 since I liked that. I'd get it cheaper and have no contract. Just no 4G. But I'm finding that I really like Gingerbread that much more now.

 

[armeddroid]

CoolTek Keyboard as well as their dialer.
I love the slide down on keys for symbols and numbers vs hitting the 'Shift" key. It makes for faster typing. The slider is equally as good as Swype and the regular keyboard works well too.
Only gripe i have with it is when using Voice to Text, the first letter isnt capitalized unless the sentence begins with an "I".
Check it out.

 

[2001400ex]

I just don't like swipe. I noticed that swipe on this phone does have the symbols on it but I'm just not a big fan of swipe. I am actually considering taking the phone back now and trying something else since I am just starting to get fed up with things that I have to change to get it where I like it. I may even go find an old Droid Incredible 2 since I liked that. I'd get it cheaper and have no contract. Just no 4G. But I'm finding that I really like Gingerbread that much more now.

Flext9 isn't "swipe", but it acts like it. The prediction seems to be better with this keyboard and swiping is way faster than typing.

If you didn't want a swipe style, try smart keyboard. I think it's free, but I paid for the upgrade. Very customizable and the prediction was pretty good.

I just bought the maxx so I installed FlexT9, still looking for the dialer. Gonna try the suggestions on here.

 

[06M6TorridGTO]

i'll have to look at those over the next 48 hours and make a decision because my 14 days is up thursday but they are probably closed that day. i'm about to post my review so far in the razr maxx hd vs galaxy s3 thread where I had said I was going to do my review lol